As an Experience Early Learning Blog Ambassador, we receive the Experience Early Learning preschool curriculum in exchange for sharing our honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. As always, our opinions on amazing things for children are 100% our own. Keep in mind that all preschoolers do things in their own time and on their own terms. What one is ready for, another might not be. Please use your best judgement when planning activities for your children.
Today’s topic was Mango, which meant exploring lots of important concepts with Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time).
We started our morning with a wonderful read-aloud told in a mix of English and Spanish about a young boy who learned an important lesson about perseverance as he worked toward picking mangoes from the mango tree near his home.
This story was incredibly unique because it was told through proverbs and the children really enjoyed hearing the proverbs in both languages.
After that, we had snack and I mentioned needing to be somewhere closer to the equator where it was warmer. After all, it’s not exactly tropical weather here in PA in the middle of November.
One of the children of course asked me about the equator, so not only did I explain what the equator was, but I also showed the preschoolers a map of the tropical rainforests, most of which are very near the equator.
After all, one of the things that we’ve learned this month is that rainforests are humid. Not only are they really hot, but it also rains a lot.
One thing led to another (as it usually does with inquisitive preschoolers) and our class decided that it would be a lot of fun to take a virtual field trip to the Amazon Rainforest.
Thanks to modern technology, we got to see each layer of the rainforest up close and personal and learned quite a lot about rainforest plants and animals in the process.
Today’s process art was a great opportunity to discuss color mixing. We practiced Blending Colors to make our very own mangoes.
One of the children had asked me what colors make orange and we experimented with a few possibilities.
When it was all said and done, we learned that mixing red and yellow makes orange.
The children had tons of fun mixing and blending colors and using their creative thinking and problem-solving skills for this activity.
Another fun idea included in this week’s Teacher Guide from Experience Early Learning was a Rainforest Friends matching game.
We received a beautiful mat that included each layer of the rainforest as well as a set of matching cards sorted by layer.
I cut out one set of matching cards and the older children took turns matching each animal to the proper rainforest layer while the younger preschoolers used the other matching cards that we hadn’t cut out and matched each set of rainforest friends.
It was so amazing to see how excited the children were about matching all of the animals we’ve learned about with the layer of the rainforest where they live.
What an amazing way to wrap up this month’s Explore the Rainforest theme and to see all of the learning that’s taken place in our classroom in just the last few weeks.
And last, but not least, there was a Mango Market math game using the manipulatives that we received in this month’s curriculum kit.
Each type of mango (pattern block) was assigned a price and the preschoolers used pretend money to buy and sell mangoes to one another.
Not only was this activity a great opportunity to practice early math skills, but also civics and economics and of course dramatic play too.
Dramatic play is so important for preschoolers because it gives them a chance a experience real life situations in an age appropriate way and to work together as a group each playing specific roles which in turn encourages communication and language skills as well as teamwork.
Today’s Mango theme was lots of fun for everyone and we all learned so much!
Don’t forget to check back next week to see what we’re up to with our new Ice Castle theme from Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time).
